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Thorne — Termite-Termite Interactions 
143 
resulted in lethal fights. Variance in response may be due to experi- 
mental protocol, particularly isolation of a colony’s soldiers and 
workers. Under natural conditions a colony’s soldiers and workers 
may interact with one another in recognition of and response to 
foreign termites. The soldier secretion has been demonstrated an 
alarm pheromone in N. exitiosus, although workers showed little 
reaction to fresh secretion presented on an applicator (Eisner et al. 
1976 ). 
In these experiments soldiers and workers from different N. cor- 
niger or Armitermes chagresi colonies did not fight, while soldier- 
worker conflict did occur in N. ephratae and Amitermes beaumonti 
conspecific encounters. In the field manipulaton involving Costa 
Rican N. corniger (Section A), soldier-worker battles were observed. 
Summarizing other general trends, N. ephratae workers scored 
relatively well in worker-worker inter-specific encounters, although 
they were not consistent victors over Armitermes workers. Both 
Amitermes and Armitermes soldiers faired relatively well in most 
encounters while Nasutitermes soldiers were less successful. In intra- 
specific Armitermes chagresi interactions, only soldier-soldier con- 
flict was observed; among Amitermes beaumonti, only meetings between 
soldiers and workers stirred fighting. Such patterns imply species 
differences in communication, meaning, and recognition of any 
colony-specific odors. 
Injuries suffered by the dead during the interaction experiments 
were scored for several trials, and are summarized in Table III. 
Presence or absence of damage to the abdomen was scored, though 
no analysis of extent of abdominal injury was recorded because the 
exact number of wounds or punctures was difficult to assess. The 
percentage of dead with abdominal wounds is generally high. 
Table II (Following pages): Survival Percentages of Panamanian Termites in 
Paired Laboratory Encounters 
Paired encounters were staged matching equal numbers of termites (number of individu- 
als from each colony given in parentheses following trial results). The total percentage of 
individuals surviving the 12 hour meeting is given for intraspecific soldier-soldier and 
worker-worker interactions: inability to identify colony affiliation prevented comparative 
percentages. All other trials report the survival percentage of the termites listed to the left 
over that of termites listed on top. Arrows at the base of a block point in the direction of a 
consistent “winner”: arrows in parentheses note a less pronounced tendency, 
indicates few deaths on either side (no fight): '+' signifies lethal interactions among 
the termites but with no consistent trend toward a victor. 
